Brief History of Nimes

Statue of the Roman Emperor Antonius Pius, Nimes. Picture by Nicolas Cadene published under under the Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 2.5 license

Nimes was originally a Celtic settlement created around a natural well at the foot of Mount Cavalier on the site of the modern city centre.

It became Romanised after the via Domitia, which connects Italy to Spain via Nimes, was constructed in 118 BC.

Nimes, then known as Nemausus ("the well"), became a Roman colony in 50 BC. It was initially occupied by veterans of Julius Caesar's Egyptian campaign.

Nimes was an extremely prosperous town under Roman rule. Augustus made it the capital of the province of Narbonne, constructed ramparts, and built a forum and aqueduct.

At the height of the Roman Empire, Nimes had a population of around 60,000. Antonious Pius, the second century Roman Emperor, was a native of Nimes.

After the collapse of the Roman Empire, Nimes was conquered by the Visigoths and its wealth was drained by incessant warfare. Nimes allied itself with the Franks and unsuccessfully rebelled against the Visigoths in 672 AD.

The Visigoths were dislodged by the Moors who invaded the Languedoc and occupied Nimes in 719 AD. They were in turn defeated by the Franks in 754 AD. Nimes was sacked and Radulf, the Frankish King, became its lord.

By now much of the Roman city had been destroyed. The few remnants such as the amphitheatre and the porte d'Auguste were converted into fortifications.

After the death of Charlemagne and the break-up of the Frankish Empire in 833 AD, France was divided into numerous principalities and Nimes became a possession of the Counts of Toulouse. The region remained vulnerable to invasion and Nimes was sacked by a Hungarian army in 924 AD.

In 1198 AD the city acquired a degree of self-governance through the appointment of four Consuls who shared power with the city's bishop. However, after the  Albigensian Crusade, which crushed the local Catharic religion, Languedoc was brought under the  centralised rule of the French monarchy.

During this period Nimes regained some of its former prosperity profiting from the wine, olive and wool trade. However, the city was heavily taxed during the Hundred Years War and fell victim to a series of catastrophic plagues in the late 14th century.

The Catholic Cathedral of Nimes attacked by Protestants on several occasions during the religious disturbances of the 16th century  Image published underGNU Free Documentation License, verison 1.2 or later

During the Reformation Nimes was a Protestant stronghold tolerated by successive French Kings. Francois I, who had a Calvinist wife, even granted a charter to the city's Protestant university in 1537.

However, many Protestants were executed, imprisoned or sent to the galleys during the religious wars of the late 16th and early 17th centuries.

Protestant rebels responded by vandalising the Catholic cathedral and by massacring ninety Catholics at the fair of Saint Michel in 1567. Catholic rioters avenged these atrocities by destroying the Protestant Temple de la Calade in 1568.

After the Edict of Nantes, by which Henri IV tolerated the Protestant faith, the violence subsided and a peaceful coexistence was achieved. By 1665 the population of Nimes comprised twelve thousand Protestants and eight thousand Catholics.

However, the Protestants were refused burial in holy ground and were forced to fund the renovation of the Catholic cathedral. The Protestant Temple de la Calade was demolished for a second time in 1686.

After Louis XIV revoked the Edict of Nantes, the Protestants were forbidden from openly practicing their religion.

This injustice lead to the Protestant revolt of the Carnisards in the early 18th century during which Catholic troops locked three hundred old men, women and children in a wooden building, the Moulin de l'Agau in the centre of Nimes, which they then set on fire. Other captured rebels were ritually burnt in the town's square.

The Tour de Constance, place of imprisonment of many Protestant rebels. Image published under the GNU Free Documentation License, verison 1.2 or later

Religious toleration was restored during the reign of Louis XVI and the Protestant majority wrested control of Nimes from Catholic royalists during the French Revolution

Nimes became an important textiles centre during the early 19th century assisted by the earlier construction of the Canal du Midi and the arrival of the railway in 1839. Denim jeans originated in the city.

During this period the modern town expanded beyond its historic centre and wide boulevards, squares and elegant buildings were constructed. The city's historic Roman monuments were restored and incorporated within the new urban environment.

The Boulevard Victor Hugo, part of 19th century redevelopment of Nimes. Picture published under the Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 2.5 license

Nimes again witnessed unrest during the period of the Commune de Paris when Protestants supported the revolution and Catholics  demonstrated in favour of the monarchy. The town also witnessed riots in 1907 when troops restored order after a mob went on the rampage during an economic crisis in the wine industry.

Nimes experienced the horrors of summary executions during  the Nazi occupation and endured Allied air raids.

In recent years Nimes has experienced a high rate of unemployment and social malaise. Like other southern towns it has confronted the problem through the promotion of tourism, urban projects and the diversification of its industrial base.

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